The Greatest Investors

I decided to include this page of Greatest Investors because back in 2001 after 9/11 when I became interested in investing, I realized that in order for one to be truly successful you have to follow the leaders. The greatest investors have something in common, they follow a certain strategy. They're never off course and always maintain a steady forward march. In your investing career it should be the same. Never stop learning and follow a strategy always. Don't fail to plan because you don't plan to fail. These guys knew it all to well and that is why they succeeded. Remember that everyone fails, but failure is how we learn so don't be too hard on yourself and take the experience and learn from it. Here are a few of the greatest investors of all time. I'm sure they are many, but these are my favorites. Read their books and start building an investing library, don't be afraid to mark up the books so you can easily refer back to certain pages, I know I do.

Warren Buffet - Often called the oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet is considered the greatest investor of all time. He is the largest shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway with an estimated net worth of 62 billion dollars, not to shabby. Mr. Buffet is quite frugal, he still lives in the same house he bought back in 1958 for $31,500 dollars. Mr. Buffet studied under his mentor and another great investor, Benjamin Graham. Warren Buffet's letters to Shareholder are a valuable source in understanding his investment style and strategies. Visit the Berkshire website for these letters and commentaries.

John Bogle - Founder of The Vanguard Group. John created the Vanguard Group in 1974. It is one of the two largest mutual fund organizations in the world. It's headquarters is located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, Vanguard has more than 100 mutual funds with current assets at 950 billion. The Vanguard 500 Index Fund is the largest fund in the group which John created in 1975. It was the first index mutual fund. John has received numerous awards and has served as chairman for various organizations. John Bogle has written several books.

Peter Lynch - Mr. Lynch is known for managing Fidelity's the Megellan Fund from 1977-1990. The fund grew from $18 million to $14 billion. Mr. Lynch most famous investment principal is that people "Invest in what you know". He has written a few books, One Up on Wall Street, Beating the Street and Learn to Earn. All three books are a must read for the new investor since Peter writes in a format that is easy to understand.

Jesse Livermore - Jesse Livermore Died in 1940 by suicide at the age of 63. He had no formal education or stock trading experience. However, he was quite a successful stock picker. He was a speculative investors, was a self made man with lots of winners and losers. He adopted a buy and hold strategy in a bull market and sell when it loses momentum. He studied the basic fundamentals of a company, the market and the economy. He publshed one book, How to Trade Stock, 1940. He also had a number of famous quotes, "Profits always take care of themselves but losses never do", and "The average man doesn't wish to be told that it is abull or a bear market. hwat he desires is to be told specifically what particular stock to buy or sell. he wants to get something for nothing. He does not wish to work. He doesn't even have to think."

William O'Neil - Born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1933. He graduated with a BA from Southern Methodist University in 1955. He started his career as a stockbroker with Hayden, Stone and Co. During his employment there he developed an investment strategy called CANSLIM. At 30 he was the youngest person on the NYSE to buy a seat on the exchange. He started his own newspaper in 1983 which became Investor's Business Daily in 1991. I personally buy it at least twice a week, the paper is an incredible tool to learn from. His CANSLIM acronym is as follows:

C - Current quarterly earnings per share are 25% higher than the previous year's quarterly earnings.

A - Annual earning are increasing by at least 25% from previous years.

N - New product, service or new management team. For example Apple computer with their famous Ipod and Iphone.

S - Supply and Demand, if the supply is low and the demand for the stock is high then the price of the stock is most likely to rise.

L - Leaders and Laggards, keep companies that are leaders and dump those who are laggards or weak from your portfolio.

I - Institutional Ownership - If institutions are buying such as pension funds and big brokerages houses, then you want to catch that wave. Not afterwards because the purchase of big institutions are the ones that drive up the price of a stock.

M - Market Direction, never buy stock in a down market (bear), always have cash ready on the sidelines to buy shares when the market in an up trend or bull market.

Thanks for visiting the Greatest Investors page.

Back to the Greatest Investors Page
Back to the Homepage